Feb. 22, 2007

By Jeff Lippman

CSTV.com

	Jeff Lippman Jeff is CSTV.com's lead women's basketball writer. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- BASKETBALL 1/17: Maryland's Unsung Hero 1/10: In The Heart Of Texas 1/3: Dawg Lovers Delight 1/2: December Women's Hoops Report 12/20: All We Want For Christmas 12/13: Like Knight And Day 12/06: A Tale Of Two Tolivers 12/04: November Women's College Basketball Report 11/29: To Dunk Or Not To Dunk 11/21: Jazzing Up Duke 11/15: Stanford's Trees 11/9: Predicting The Hardware 11/8: From Zero To 60 11/8: The Best Of The Best 11/6: Rebels Work Like Gator Aid 11/5: Surprises Few At Top Of SEC 11/4: Hoosiers Going Nowhere But Up 11/4: Hoosiers, The Sequel 11/2: Building The Game They Loved 11/1: Young Vandy Will Still Be Just Dandy 10/31: Bridging The Tennessee Gender Gap 10/30: Open The SEC, Find A Pearl 10/29: Singing Lullabies 10/29: Immediate Impacts 10/24: Assisted Development 10/18: Questions In Judgment 10/16: Preseason Top 25 - All-American Teams 10/15: Conference Winners 10/15: A Chip Shot Away 10/12: The Great Eight 10/11: A Family Of Champions 10/4: For One More Year 9/27: All It Takes Is One 9/20: Around The Big East In 30 Games 9/13: They're So Berkeley 8/30: March Madness Come Early 8/23: Dude, Looks Like a Lady...Vol 8/16: Wading Through the Talent 8/15: Kia Creates Controversy 8/9: A Pricey Comparison 8/2: Everybody Knows Their Names 7/26: Never Lonely At The Top 7/24: The Future Stars In Bratislava 7/19: Moore Pieces of the Puzzle 7/17: Devotion To Country And Basketball 7/12: Golden Memories 7/5: Ta'Shia and The Crusading Musketeers 6/28: The All-Fourth Of July Teams 6/21: Two Out of Three Ain't Bad 6/14: We Will Meet Again, But Not Yet 6/7: Orange and Blueprints to Success 5/31: Running with the Big Dogs 5/24: WNBA Rookie of the Year Handbook 5/23: Tennessee's Goddess of Victory 5/17: Creating A Necessary Madness 5/10: The Next Marist? 5/3: Going Away Presents 4/25: Women's Coaching Carousel - The Losers 4/19: Women's Coaching Carousel: The Winners 4/12: Destination: Tampa 2008 4/5: Tommorow Is Only A Day Away 4/3: What Else Is New? 4/3: Bye Bye Blue Devils 4/2: The Underdog Vols 4/2: All-American Futility 3/29: Parker Transcending Greatness 3/27: Absolute Dominance 3/26: Mississippi Nouveau 3/25: Price Is Right For Ole Miss 3/24: The Cinderella of Cliche 3/23: Rising From The Fabric Softener 3/22: Making History One Upset at a Time 3/20: Two For Tournament Tuesday 3/19: Aggression Will Make Her Grrr-eat 3/18: Getting Back Up 3/15: NCAAs Not Always Neutral 3/13: Coming Out Parties 3/12: Seeds Align For Atlantic Coast 3/8: Suffering From Madness, Terps Find Cure 3/6: Winning Ugly Was Oh So Pretty For Rutgers 3/5: Pursuing Equilibrium 3/4: Tickle the Ivory, Cut Down the Nets 3/3: Heart and Desire 3/2: Maryland's Biggest Fan 3/1: Everybody's Native All-American 3/1: February Women's College Basketball Report 2/28: The Juice Is Loose 2/26: Jersey's Public Enemy No. 1 2/22: Hindsight's Perfect Vision 2/15: The Fabulous Five 2/8: Duke Out-Shines North Carolina 2/8: Chestnut Hill Idol 2/1: Freshman Dawg Has Her Day 2/1: Summitt Up For Greatness 1/31: January Women's College Basketball Report 1/25: Duke's Devastating Defense 1/22: "D Stands For Defense, And Duke 1/18: Rebels With A Cause 1/13: A Devil Of A Rematch 1/11: As Easy As One, Two, Three 1/2: December Women's College Basketball Report 12/28: Pride of the Pride 12/20: From Israel To Exams 12/19: MAAC Champs In Trouble 12/13: Bridging The Gap 12/10: Owls Give Terps a Hoot of a Time 12/1: November Women's College Basketball Report 11/25: Vermont's Power Too Much For Wagner 10/16: Looking Out For No. 1 FOOTBALL 10/9: No. 2 Ranking A Long Time Coming 10/8: Tebow Makes An Impression 10/1: Tebow Sparks Gators SOCCER 8/30: Boston College Eaglets 8/29: Leader In Life And Between The Nets 8/27: Preceded by Expectations 8/27: 2007 Women's Soccer Season Preview 9/29: Talent and Climate Lures Trinidadians 9/18: Late Start No Obstacle WATER POLO 9/6: Water Polo Championships 101

Hindsight is 20-20, as the saying goes. Talk about a series of unfortunate events. Decisions that can change everything. Or nothing. Let me explain.

When Baylor senior forward and All-American candidate Bernice Mosby was a freshman, she sported a uniform of orange and blue as a member of the Florida Gators.

A Florida native, Mosby signed on to play basketball for then-Gators, now-Ole Miss coach Carol Ross. But the mentor-student relationship between Ross and Mosby never grew as Ross unexpectedly stepped down from her post as head coach of the Gators.

Enter Carolyn Peck, the young energetic coach from the WNBA who had recently led Purdue to a national championship. Florida looked to go from driving a Porsche to driving a Ferrari.

Five years later, the Gators are missing that Porsche--the Ferrari broke down big time.

After two and a half seasons in Gainesville, Mosby left for greener, shinier pastures...literally, as Baylor's colors are green and gold.

She didn't quite get kicked off the team, didn't quite choose to transfer, I guess you could say the feeling was mutual. In either case, Mosby had her run-ins as a Gator and in late March of her junior season she left the team for good.

"I wouldn't say I was unhappy, it was just a lot of stuff that I went through that I wasn't happy with," Mosby said. "And I just love the University of Florida, it's a great institution. I would advise any person recruited from there to go there, because they have a great athletic program. But, you know, there comes a time when you realize that it's not for you and you don't fit in there.

"I don't think it was that I wasn't fitting in, it was just personal reasons. I just needed a change, within myself and just to refresh and get away, even from Florida and start over and do something."

When Mosby and Peck began their Gator careers, Gainesville became lively with talk of the women's basketball team raising itself to the level of the men's team. Now, as they both are in their final season with their respective teams, the Gator men are defending national champs, Baylor is one of the best teams in the country with Mosby leading the way and the Gator women are...well, they're an abomination at 7-20 and 1-11 in the SEC.

And, as of Feb. 12, rock bottom was where the Gators stood--at a press conference announcing the firing of coach Peck at the end of the season.

"I didn't expect that," Mosby said. "She's a great coach and I just thought she was going to pull through. If you look at it, they have a really young team and I guess things just didn't work out."

To say things didn't work out is an understatement.

After a disappointing inaugural season of 9-19 for Peck and the Gators in 2002-03, the next season was a complete turnaround at 19-11. Mosby was voted the SEC's Sixth Woman of the Year and was UF's second leading scorer and rebounder.

Then came Mosby's volatile junior year. The Gators suffered a relapse due to the graduation of Second Team All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year Vanessa Hayden. Although Mosby's career numbers were skyrocketing--she averaged 15.5 points a game as the Gators' leading scorer and finished the year a Second Team All-SEC selection--off the court, her problems were mounting.

Finishing 14-15 that season, the Gators sat Mosby on Feb. 25 and she would never appear in another game for Florida. The following season in Gainesville, as Mosby waited for her eligibility at Baylor to kick in, Florida went 21-9 and lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Where might the Gators have finished had Mosby stayed for her senior year?    

"I don't know," Mosby said. "You can't tell, it is just something you have to go through. I don't think anything would have been different had I stayed, it's just something that I believe everything happens for a reason and maybe that was just the reason for things to happen the way they are happening know. It's nobody's fault, it's just life."

It would make sense to believe had Mosby ended her career a Gator, Peck might still have a job at Florida. A solid Gators squad last season could have used her swagger and scoring. Had she stayed, the 21-9 record undoubtedly would have been even better.

Maybe the Gators make a deeper tourney run. Maybe they turn some heads swaying top recruits their direction. Maybe they wouldn't be SEC cellar dwellers now, had Mosby stayed just one more season.

Maybe, but then again, hindsight is 20-20.

For Mosby, the decision to transfer was a blessing, her trials and tribulations in Gainesville a blessing in disguise.

"It has just been really happy for me [at Baylor]," Mosby, whose entire family still resides in Florida, said. "I have just grown into the woman that I needed to grow into, maturing a lot. I am just comfortable with the people I'm around, with the atmosphere around here. Baylor being a Baptist university, I grew up in the church, so it's just staying closer to my faith, and also playing ball and having fun, I'm just free."

Leading the No. 14 Lady Bears (23-4) in scoring (17.9 ppg) and rebounding (9.4), Mosby is the best player on the best team in the Big 12 (tied with Texas A&M and Oklahoma).

I guess you could say that Mosby made the right decision. But who knows? With an All-American-caliber Mosby last year, there is no telling how far the Gators could have gone. Mosby could be sitting on a WNBA roster right now with a national championship ring on her finger.

OK, so that is going a bit too far, and Mosby says she thanks God every day for the decision she made to attend Baylor.   

She still has friends on the Gator team and she knows about the troubles they are struggling through this season.

"I can attest to that," she said. "We went 9-19 one year at Florida, so I know what they are going through. I just feel so bad for them; it is a difficult time that they are going through. Just like I said, everything happens for a reason, you just have to trust in God and he is going to make it work out of nowhere."

Through a series of unfortunate events and a bevy of decisions both good and bad, the Gators ship sunk while Mosby's sail caught wind. No one can possibly know the ramifications of Mosby's transfer to Baylor, but as the Gators begin their search for a new coach and Mosby continues to garner accolades, Peck has got to wonder, what could have been?

Hindsight is 20-20.